Automated manufacturing and processing plants frequently require an efficient, optimized movement of components, products or other items through the plant as they travel between processing stations. In this application, a meat packaging plant is taken as an example; however it should be understood that the principles and ideas described here can be employed with a wide variety of other types of products and processes.
Where large numbers of items (eg meat products) need to be moved around a processing plant, this is typically achieved using conveyor belts (for continuous transport) or containers or pallets (for batch transport). In a meat packaging plant, for example, meat portions may arrive on a conveyor belt from the butchery, with each portion in an individual plastic tray. Such trays may be re-usable transport carriers, used for reasons of hygiene, or, more usually, the trays are so-called primary packaging trays, and will remain with the meat portion until it reaches the end consumer. The incoming trays are usually lifted off the conveyor belt by an operator and stacked manually in stackable crates or on pallets. Some products, such as plastic or metal components, may be suitable for lifting off the belt and into the crates in an automated process, for example by means of a jointed robotic grab or arm, but such mechanisms are costly and require frequent maintenance.
Handling of the charged crates or pallets can then be performed automatically, and each crate/pallet can be stored until required and then delivered to its intended destination (for example a shrink-wrapping station) by transport robotics and/or on conveyor belts. Robotic lifting and moving systems may be used for stacking and unstacking crates as required, under the control of the process management software of the whole system.
In the example case of meat processing (as well as in other applications), product traceability is very important. Each individual product item must be reliably traceable and identifiable throughout the processing and handling. Existing traceability systems rely on attaching identifying markers to the meat product itself, or to the carrier on which the product is being conveyed.